I come awake confused, blinking as I push up from where I’m lying beneath Yggdrasil’s branches. I am alone. Cora is gone. My breath quickens I hear my blood pounding in my ears. “What happened?” The words come out a low growl as I fight for control. She doesn’t answer. “Yggdrasil! Answer me. What happened? Where is she?” Silence. “I will not be ignored.” She’s fucking ignoring me.

“Loki?” It is a question, and I turn my head, studying Danu. My rage instantly cools when I see fear in her eyes. A lifetime she has known me and she fears me now. Climbing to my feet, I turn to her holding out my hand. She stares at it, and I look down, blood is dried and cracked on my skin. I could make it disappear but I don’t. Letting it fall to my side, I look back at her. She sees something that allows her to draw near me. The monster.

“What did I do?” My voice is strangled. I don’t really want to know, but the blood cannot be ignored, neither can the loss of control.

“The woman who travels with Nestor.” I nod. I remember her approaching Cora. “She attempted to use her power on Cora, but you stopped her.” Her tone says everything.

“Did she survive?”

“Yes. Aislin managed to calm you enough for Nestor to knock you out somehow?” I knew he had hidden talents.

“That’s good. Very good.” I glance around, and her eyes follow my path.

“I will not tell you where they took her. It is too dangerous. You are too dangerous.” She pauses, watching for my reaction.

“You’re right. I warned them all, the power is too strong. I can’t fight Odin. To win, I would have to release it, and you’ve now seen what that is like.” Her eyes are sad as she watches me. I begin to pace. “I must disappear again.”

A wave of her hand and a velvet couch appears. She lowers herself to it then pats it, wanting me to join her. I shake my head. Sighing, she draws her feet up, and they are lost in the folds of her dress. “Do you remember what you told Ylva so long ago?” I stop and look at her, shrugging and shaking my head. “You told her she shouldn’t fear the beast inside her, that by locking the Berserker away she had made it stronger. You made her and Morrigan understand she had to work with it.” Her delicate eyebrow arches.

“It is completely different,” I growl.

“Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t.” She disappears before I can say another word. I want to hit something or kill something but instead, I fling myself onto the stupid couch. The Berserker is sentient, it thinks, it needs. This power isn’t anything like that. It only hungers.

‘But what does it hunger for?’ The whisper isn’t the Tree of Life, for she remains silent. I freeze, only my eyes moving around the area, but no one is near. I don’t recognize the power, but it is the definition of feminine. ‘Figure that out and maybe you can save us all.’

“And how do I do that?” I scream, my voice like a thunder clap.

‘Millions of years, thousands of different species, hundreds of versions as they evolve. I’ve watched them all, the same mistakes over and over. No one ever learns. They all forget.’ The word ‘forget’ fades away as she draws her power back.

“Forgets WHAT?!” Silence. My anger bubbles and with it, the power. It likes the rage, it likes any deep wild emotion. Cora’s face wavers in front of my eyes. Exactly the moment I saw her, I knew I should stay far from her. Her full lips curved slightly when I caught her looking at me from her table covered with silken scarves, her hair pulled up under her head-wrap, the pale lilac color highlighting her skin. Stray pieces colored bright pinks and blues escape around her neck. Her hands caressed over the worn cards in front of her.

That instant I felt the tug of her thread, I should have opened my vision and inspected my own right then but I am the God Loki. Stupid and arrogant, I never considered. Thousands of years alone, I believed destiny had spared some poor woman from having to be tied to the madness of my blood. I was so wrong. Instead, they tied a tiny human to me in a sick twist of fate, dragged her into my world.

Sifting away, I have no thought of where I’m going. I don’t care; I just need to be away. I blink as I solidify in her tiny apartment. Her scent is everywhere. I see her in every piece in her home. I really need to leave but why should I? She’s not here. She may never be here again. The thought drops me to my knees. My power pushes at me, testing my control, and I want to just release it, letting it destroy me and everything around me. I see her face in my mind, eyes filled with tears as she kneels by Fenrir’s body. I feel her arms around me when she refused to leave. I taste her on my tongue as I remember the kiss.

I will fight. I will hold on for her. To save her. Pushing up, I stumble to her bed, letting myself fall onto the silken covers, inhaling her, drawing her deep within me. Slowly, the power recedes as I let the scent of her soak into my pores. The room is pulsing with tiny remnants of her power that are woven into the wards she placed, wards that could never keep me out, wards I shattered when I arrived. I let that power caress over my body, whispers of touch filled with her warmth.

A voice shouting outside wakes me. I bolt up startled and looking around, I see the clock across the room. My eyes widen at the time it says. I slept all through the day. I haven’t slept longer than an hour at a time in a millennium.

“CORA!” The deep throaty voice calls again, dragging me out of my thoughts. Brows drawn down, I climb from her bed and pad to the window. Peering out through the shutter, I see him below in the street, paint dotting his hands and clothes, and he has his wild hair pulled up in some ridiculous bun. A growl bubbles up as he yells again. “I’m coming up.”

I move on silent feet toward the door. Let him come! I’m not letting him in her home. Feet stop outside the door, and I clench my teeth as I hear a key slide into the lock. I sift slightly out of this dimension, just out of his sight. Deep breaths saw in and out of my lungs as I try not to strangle him. He has a key. Why? I hate him.

The door opens slowly, and he steps in. “Cora?” I can hear the worry and I try to rein in my anger. The door closes with a quiet click, and he looks around. His eyes search every inch of the room as his hand wraps around something that hangs from a leather cord around his neck. He moves through the room, keeping the wall at his back, eyes moving constantly.

I’m intrigued. Sending a hint of my power out, I watch him stiffen. Interesting. My eyes shift, letting me see all of him, his thread, his soul. He glows bright, colors swirling around him, like my Cora. I blink startled at my thoughts. My Cora? No, not mine. That thought makes me more angry, and I shake my head, trying to clear the red haze descending over me. Refocusing on this boy, Remy, I look deep, surprised at what I find.